The need to contain livestock for purposes of control, show or shelter is well known and has caused a multitude of permanent and portable devices to be developed through the years. While the present invention falls generally within the class of portable pens, it has the totally unexpected propensity of providing a unique tool for the discipline and training of animals, especially horses.
Prior art devices include numerous portable pens, corrals, shelters, stockades, fences, and screens that can be used to define enclosed areas for the containment of livestock or children.
For instance, Sommer (U.S. Pat. No. 1,330,434) describes a pen for exhibiting livestock which comprises a plurality of discrete panels which are adapted to be interconnected to define pens of different sizes and designs and having one or more compartments. Each panel is formed with bottom, top and end bars covered by wire fabric so as to be individually hung and swung as farm gates are swung.
Bible (U.S. Pat. No. 2,451,431) discloses a portable play pen, primarily for children, which embodies a collapsible fence coactive with means for supporting the fence in an upright position to define the pen. Specifically, this device is comprised of flexible wall members or panels supported by rigid posts to define an enclosed rectangular play area. The pen is anchored to guy wires at the corners of the wall members which in turn are attached to stakes driven in the ground a short distance therefrom and used to tighten the flexible members of the fence. The fence panel members are formed by stringing a plurality of individual slats in spaced parallel relationship, one to another, to complete a panel.
Wong (U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,198) also teaches a portable plastic fence comprising easily interconnectable post sections including a base section which is anchored into the ground and a plurality of extension post sections which are mountable one in each of the base post sections to create a fence of a predetermined height. In one embodiment, horizontal struts are connected between spaced post sections while in another embodiment, panel means are connected between the post sections.
O'Fearna (U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,364) discloses a portable screen of fabric held upright by a plurality of hollow poles clamped to the fabric by C-clamps. A stake is telescoped within each hollow pole and held in an extended position by the friction of a resilient sleeve near the top of the stake. The pole/stake assembly is driven into the ground.
Despite the general similarity of appearance, none of the foregoing references either teach or suggest means and methods for containing and training animals therewith in the manner of the present invention and fail to provide the unexpected advantages thereof as shall hereinafter appear in the detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention.